MRI to Launch Mags Ad Measurement Service

Magazine research company Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) said it has rolled out a new ad measurement service that will raise magazine measurement to the level of TV and Internet ratings.

The new service will combine MRI’s three data streams—magazines’ readership by average issue, issue-specific readership and ad readership—to deliver issue-specific ad ratings. Media agency Starcom USA and publisher Time Inc. have signed up for the service, called AdMeasure.

As print struggles to compete on an accountability basis with electronic media, MRI and rival researcher Affinity have come under pressure from media companies and advertisers to deliver richer data about magazine audiences.

Affinity is working on an audience measurement service similar to MRI’s, the American Magazine Study, that will gauge consumers’ recall and action taken in response to ads. That service isn’t slated to come out until 2010, however.

The two services also differ in their methodology. Significantly, MRI’s AdMeasure blends its twice-annual, in-person magazine readership survey with an online survey. Affinity’s survey will be online only, which the firm said would keep clients’ costs down.